Problems Caused by Social Networks: Ideas to Cover

Digital technologies have filled our everyday life. They have greatly expanded our capabilities, but also brought a list of potential problems. Despite the adorable cats and new communication forms, the Internet has given us new forms of invasion into the people's personal space. Although these invasions occur online, their effects are real and can injure someone. The other side of the availability is vulnerability. Terrible, ugly and obsessive behaviors are born in the social networks: pressure, control and intrusion.

Trolling

This social provocation is aimed to make you argue with an obviously absurd position, at the same time trying to protect and justify your common sense. This is one of the most famous psychological strategies on the Internet. At first it seems that it is good only for teenagers, but adults who have overcome the school age, have higher enthusiasm for trolling experience. Trolling strategies range from “thin” to “thick”, depending on the tasks and the skills of the aggressor. The problem is that trolling has become a common thing and now it is underestimated.

Cyberbullying

The phenomenon of bullying emerged before the era of social networks. It is a physical or psychological terror by the group of people. Social networks have brought bullying to the next level. Everyone can easily join it. Bullying is not necessarily directed against a known person: even a random user may become a victim. The aim of such terror is to make the victim lose self-confidence, to demoralize and show the aggressor’s superiority. In the soft cases, bullying reduces the emotional background of the victim and ruins their self-esteem. If bulling is hard, it even can cause the suicidal actions.

Stalking

One of the most dangerous kinds of pressure on the Internet is cyberstalking. In contrast to bulling, it is often characterized by an active writing of the positive or complimentary messages to the victim. The era of the Internet made stalking a fast and simple tool for the psychological threat. This trouble can be subjected to everyone – your popularity in the media space does not matter. Stalker’s harassment is unpleasant and frightening. This is because he invades into the private space and ruins your confidence in your own safety.

Addiction to Likes

The most minimalistic tool of social contact in the network, like “thump up”, “like” and so on, has a truly magical power over users’ minds. “Like” is a simple way to accept a compliment or to show the interest. Psychological discomfort may be caused by insufficient amount of likes. It may sound ridiculous but it can be painful to someone if his/her post, shared picture or selfie doesn’t get certain amount of approvals. This hunt for likes is diagnosed as a psychological addiction and it requires a conscious attitude to it.

Blurred Borders

Private information in the social networks can easily transform into the category of public. Even the information that was not intended for a wide range of people can receive the publicity. What is personal information and where is that border between private and public? For example, nowadays we have such issue like “revenge porn”. There are a lot of variants: leaking celebrity pictures, posting the nude photos for the purpose of the revenge, hacking accounts, etc. All this requires us to think of our personal information and how to protect it.